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Proto-Whisper
Classification and Dialects This is an initial sketch for Whisper, and has roots in English, Hebrew, Japanese, and French. Phonology and Romanisation Consonants (with romanisation) Vowels (with romanization) Phonotactics *A t̪ʰ cannot occur in the middle of a word, and ɾ cannot end or begin a word. The letter 't' can stand for both, but can be clearly derived from context. *Vowels can only follow a consonant, and diphthongs are disallowed. *'f', 'x', and 'q' cannot follow or be followed by a consonant. *'x' and 'q' cannot end a word. *pɔ cannot start a word, exept plurals. See 'nouns' below. *Each vowel must follow a consonant. Grammar Pronouns Nouns Nouns have a plural form. To make a noun plural, prepend 'po' to the word. For example: *'panana' -> "Banana" *'popanana' -> "Bananas" Another example: *'ni' -> "Me' *'poni' -> "Us" (ambiguous inclusivity) Numbers Numbers are adjectives most of the time, thus prepend a noun. Other numbers are constructed as you'd expect: *127 - 'kaket qita selat sene' *3 546 -> 'xalos saset sin selat kat selat leke' *45 -> 'kat selat sin' *10 000 -> 'selat saset' *5 000 000 -> sin saset saset' There is but one exception: forty. This is because bible/torah verses often refer to the number forty. Ie: 40 days and 40 nights, 40 years in the desert, etc. If I am going to base this on hebrew at all, or make some effort to translate bible verses, I think this may be a novel idea: Verbs All verbs end in '-o', and conjugate replacing that ending. Verb conjugates due to person, but not number. Present participle (doing): -e This is used with 'xo' to create the present tense. Ie: "I am doing" -> 'Ni xol xape.' Past participle (done): -epe ''' This is used with 'xo' and 'ko' to create the perfect tense. Ie: "I have done" -> 'Ni kol xapepe'. "I was done" -> 'Ni xol xapepe'. Examples: *To be, 'xo': 'ni '''xol Tanlel' -> "I'm Daniel". *To like, 'leko': 'te lekot kin lo!' -> "He/She liked you." *To injure, 'kano': 'qe kanopon kin ka?' -> "Who's going to hurt you?" *To like, 'leko': 'ni lekoxol ne panana' -> "I would like a banana." To use the negative, use the adjective 'sel' (0/nothing) as an adverb by placing it before the verb: *'ni sel xol Tanlel' -> "I'm not Daniel." *'te sel lekot kin' -> "He/She didn't like you." Syntax *Adjectives prepend nouns. *Adverbs are adjectives that prepend verbs. *Prepositions and indirect objects follow the object. *Expression markers append a sentence. There are two clause markers: *'pi' - "That". '''This is followed by a sentence in a suitable tense that describes context. Eg: "I want you to like it." can be changed to "I want that you like it", which translates as '''Ni selol pi ki lekol te. *'si' - "Who/Which". This is followed by a subject-less sentence in a suitable tense which describes the noun that it follows. Eg: "I like the banana which was bad" translates as Ni lekol panana ni xo sat. Expression markers describe the feeling with which the sentence is constructed: * 'ka' - Question marker. Marks a question. * 'lo' - Exclamation marker. 'Marks a sentence with strong feeling or indignation. Can also mark sarcasm. * ''ne' - Confirmation marker. Like saying "Isn't it?" or "Right?" Lexicon Verbs Example text Category:Languages